Thread: Software Suggestions

Hi. I'm working on a historical novel and find that I need something to help me organize my research notes in a way that I can easily reference them as I write. My current notes are titled with categories such as anecdotes, interesting facts (ie invention of a particular item, or popular custom), setting facts, books to read, etc. but are hand-scribbled and spread randomly throughout a spiral bound notebook. This makes it difficult to find a particular note quickly.

Also, it would be helpful to have a digital storyline/timeline since, with my frequent changes, I've found it impossible to maintain an old fashioned paper-notes-on-bulletin-board version. I spend far too much time shuffling scraps of paper that way. Yet I'm very visual so I need something of this sort to help me keep things straight.

It would be nice to create a clickable outline that takes me to the correct part of my book, too, instead of trying to estimate how many pages into my story the scene I'm looking for is located, like I do now.

A place to keep notes on character profiles and new book ideas and/or new scene ideas would be nice too.

That said I am looking to spend $50 max, free would be awesome! But I don't know where to start with all the different programs out there.

I own both mac (desktop) and pc (laptop) computers, but the bulk of my work is currently on a pc and I am looking to purchase a smaller, more basic portable laptop of some kind soon (not the ipad!). So I'm somewhat flexible in that department.

Suggestions please?

There's a free program called yWriter that allows you to organise notes which are chapter-specific. I believe it also allows you to have footnotes and endnotes too.

Download Page.

Thank you Sam W! That does seem like a program that will help with many features I'm looking for. (will have to try it later - laptop is giving me power problems this morning) Also, I read another thread on this site and saw that someone used spreadsheets with links to other documents. I didn't realize you could do that. So I played around with Excel and set up my own digital reference library, so to speak, that can help me with my research notes problem. Now if yWriter works out, all I will need is something for creating a digital timeline for visualization purposes (I see that yWriter has a storyboard but I've decided I want something like a more traditional timeline with dates as well)...going to do a google search on that. Using 3 programs at once may not be ideal, but hey, free is a great price and it gets the job done, right?

I'm currently trying out yWriter on my computer and I'm hopeful it turns out to be a good fit. I'm still working my way through the learning curve of figuring out how things work though, so time will tell. Meanwhile, I'd still like to create a digital timeline. I tried the Excel version and it just seems too inflexible/complicated. I want something that has the basic outline all set and I can just pop in the info I want to (year, month, day, event) with as little hassle as possible. I don't want to be dragging and dropping boxes into place just to get started. Rearranging, sure, but not to just get started. Has anyone here successfully used an inexpensive/free digital timeline software?

Thanks!

There is only one system that will work for you.

SamW likes ywriter, which I've tried and found to be a nuisance. I write everything in Notepad, keeping several files open at the same time on the screen so I can move from one point to another and always have my field notes and outline visible. Others always use Microsoft Word, which I only use for formatting. There are some who use yellow legal pads and write everything by hand.

The only system that is right for you is the one you are most comfortable using. Just make sure you spend your time writing and not fiddling with software.

garza - Thank you for the accurate advice. It would not be wise to spend too much of my time fiddling with software instead of writing. I am currently trying to do both. But I'm hoping that finding a software program (or two) that works for me will help streamline the process. Right now I spend far too much time shuffling little pieces of paper and flipping through notes trying to find/remember information that a good software program could help me find in seconds. Also a clickable outline would eliminate my trial and error method of using the "go to" function on Word to find a particular scene and I find it helpful to have it visible at all times. In short, I'm hoping a little time invested in finding the right software now will help save me a lot of time and frustration later.

Somewhere in one of these threads I put up a screen shot of the way I work. You might find it interesting and you might find that it would work for you. If I can find it I'll tell you where it is.

Originally Posted by heartmama

Hi. I'm working on a historical novel and find that I need something to help me organize my research notes in a way that I can easily reference them as I write.

I just started using StoryBox, but am anxiously awaiting the release of Scrivener for Windows. It's already available for Macintosh. I have not personally used Scrivener, but I've heard only rave reviews. The beta Windows version should be available before NaNoWriMo starts. Prior to StoryBox, I was using a wacky combination of Word07, handwritten notes, and the calendar in Gmail for timelines-- not the most efficient system

I finally found the link I was looking for and it's been sitting on my own Webpage. This is a demo page of how I write using Notepad.

http://www.growbelize.com/uploads/3/...452210.jpg?920

I can have other windows open behind these if I need them. Just a click will bring them forward.

In the lower right is a list of the presentations I want to include in the report. This is where I would put an outline for an essay or for a fiction story.

Above it and on the left side are notes on three individual presentations. I like to compare what different presenters say. In writing an essay these would be notes for different points. I can, of course, edit any of these windows any time I want. Thus if you had a window for characters, one for plot, one for setting, you could edit as new ideas came to you. Of course you can have a separate window for each character, for each venue, whatever. Notepad allows total flexibility.

In the centre is the text I'm working on. When the report is completed this will be the only window left open. I'll then copy it and paste it into MS Word for formatting.

edit - I forgot to mention that the printing is not very sharp because I copied a screen shot and compressed it to a jpg file.

garza - Some of your small print on the Notepad page took me back to an evening in late March-early April, 1953. It was the bit about the cattle census. As a kid, I had a vague notion that a census of anything involved a strict count; someone actually went around counting heads.

Boy, was I naïve. I was spending time with relations on their cattle property in central Queensland. Apart from the wimmen, there was my mother’s cousin Jack and his son Bill. The night in question, as we were finishing tea, Bill came in with some official-looking papers.

“Dad,” he said, “We still have to do this cattle census for the Department of Agriculture.”

“Oh, heck,” Jack replied. “I’d forgotten all about it.”

“Whattya say we do it now?”

“Do you have a pen?”

“Right here.”

“Let’s start with McGinty’s.” This was local idiom, perhaps the equivalent of your South 40, and referred to a section some thirty minutes horseback ride away.

“Okay. How many up there, do you think?”

“Have to be close to 100, I reckon.”

“We can’t say an even hundred. It’ll look suspicious.”

“Fair enough. Put down 93.”

And that was the way it went, for the entire property. Every single bullock, calf and cow was counted that night, right there on the kitchen table. The form was duly signed, sealed in its OHMS envelope, and collected next morning by the cream carter.

No doubt, farmers all across this wide brown land were using the same process. In time, every one of these forms would have been collated by some pipsqueak of a public servant, the totals would have been tallied up, and the result churned out as our official cattle census.

Since that time I have totally ignored all statistics as meaningless.

But it looked good on paper. Your Ministry of Agriculture probably has a bulletin or newsletter of some sort, so all the numbers from all over Australia could be published, and the Minister of Agriculture could stand in Parliament and point with pride to the growth in the cattle sector, and everyone could feel good about the whole process, especially the farmer and his son who didn't have to spend days out counting heads but could get the whole job done of an evening sitting comfortably over cups of coffee in the kitchen.

Every few weeks I'm in the Ministry of Agriculture in Belmopan and usually have questions for the Ministry's statistician. He's always happy to answer. He'll open up files on his computer and print out pages of information about how many onions were planted and how many pigs were born. And I believe every word of it. Of course I do. Just like I believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

Scrivener has been mentioned already, but I will mention it again because it sounds like an almost perfect fit for you. It doesn't have a timeline, but it does have a free-form corkboard which lets you move cards around, each one representing different bits of your text. There's a Mac version with a 30 day free trial, and a Windows version which should come out of beta soon.

I've just upgraded to Windows Office 2010. The difference between 2007 and 2010 is not so dramatic as between 2003 and 2007, but there is enough difference to make it worth the dollars (pounds, Euros, yen...) charged by Microsoft. While I don't use a word processor for writing, I do need a good word processor for formatting, and I've not found anything that comes close to MS Word. Also, the much-maligned Publisher has been improved to the point that I believe I can use it to turn out some of the small projects for various NGO's and the Min of Ag.

I use Open Office instead of Word. It's free and it saves in Word format up to 2007's .docx format or Word XP's .doc. You can get it at openoffice.org. Also for just timed writing I use yedit. It allows you to set a word count goal to shoot for and shows you your progress in the status bar.

I've tried many (if not most) of the novel/story -writing/organization software tools. Some have been interesting, but most have just been idle curiosity. I write everything (script, prose, notes) in Celt-X and have for over a year now. Before that, it was a freeware app called Copywriter, which was a heavily modified Wordpad. I used Wordpad before that, and Notepad before that. Pre-Windows I used (for over a decade) a word processor called ProWrite that my Dad bought me on the momentous occasion of me dropping out of high school. I loved that program, and still -- to this day -- find myself attempting macros when I get into the good flow.

Celt-X has a notation system and a bunch of options to breakdown via scene, character, location, etc. I'm not sure about a timeline though. And it's free.

Celt X